Two share lead

A STAFF REPORTER

Calcutta: International Master Diptayan Ghosh and Kaustuv Kundu shared the lead with six points apiece at the end of the sixth round of the 24th The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship, being organised by the Alekhine Chess Club.

Diptayan and Kaustav are closely followed by Saurabh Anand, Mitrabha Guha, Debankan Dhara, Sumit Kumar, Aditya Chowdhury and Ashirwad Swain, all six of them at 5.5 points.

Diptayan opted for French Defence, operating with Black on the top board against Suvradipta Das. An early exchange of queens was followed by another exchange of a few more pieces, which resulted in an almost equal position.

In the middlegame, Diptayan took full advantage of his rival’s sloppy work to gain complete control of the proceedings before wrapping things up in 38 moves.

Kaustav got the better of Adhip Roy, who played the Caro-Kann Defence against a King Pawn Opening, in a game that lasted only 19 moves.

On the second board, Mitrabha split points with Saurabh in a long-drawn game lasting 52 moves.

In the other matches, Debankan defeated Arka Sengupta, while Sumit prevailed over Ritabroto Ganguly. Swain had it easy over Rajarshi Dutta, with Aditya beating Neelash Saha.